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The world of poker includes everything from the poker tables found in the casinos of Las Vegas to the online tournaments that include players from all over the world. The hugely popular game of poker has seen a meteoric rise over the years and poker events are becoming big draws for fans and players alike.

One of the biggest events in the poker calendar is the WSOP (World Series of Poker), bringing some of the best players of the game into one big competition. The winners of the tournaments have become headline news, with the WSOP 2017 winner scooping a whopping 8.1 million dollars.

History of the WSOP

The World Series of Poker began in 1970; the first event was held in the Binion’s Horseshoe casino Las Vegas. At this time there were very few poker tables in Las Vegas, only around 70, and the host casino didn’t have a dedicated poker room.

Around 30 gamblers attended the first World Series and the first champion of the event was Johnny Moss. He was not an overall tournament winner, but he was voted the ‘best player all round’ by the players in the event.

The WSOP started off with humble beginnings, with no-one outside of Las Vegas knowing anything about it. The next WSOP events grew with more players and higher stakes. The event gained momentum and began to get a reputation as a sport that could be good entertainment for poker fans.
CBS Sports televised the World Series of Poker for the first time in 1973, and it has continued to grow to now become the biggest event in poker.

Other poker tournaments have benefited from this wave of popularity, but it was the WSOP, starting in the 1970s, that paved the way for the events we are familiar with today.